Cajun music and other river delights

“There’s something about being out in the swamp, especially when you’re by yourself ... something that seems to just suck the poisons of civilized life right out of you, a kind of healing power that lets you begin to be yourself again.” Greg “Dancing Bear” Guirard was quoting from his book, “The Land of Dead Giants,” and his rapt audience -- passengers on the steamboat Delta Queen -- nodded in agreement.

On a cruise through the Cajun backwaters of Louisiana only a few miles from New Orleans, Greg and other lecturers were giving us a crash course in Cajun life, history, music and culture from the immigrants’ early days in France, through the tumultuous days in Acadia, Canada, to the swamp and bayou life in southern Louisiana.

Bill Fontenot explained bird species and flora and other fauna of the swamps and bayous. Guirard offered insight into the lives and thinking of Cajuns.

Mark de Basile was playing an accordion, and other Cajun musicians kept the boat alive with music that had everyone clapping along and occasionally jumping up to do the two-step.

As Greg said: “A Cajun who isn’t having fun is wasting his life.”

We cruised from New Orleans on the Mississippi River and entered the Intracoastal Waterway, headed for New Iberia. We had a full day of steamboating, and the sunny day drew passengers to the rocking chairs on deck, where they relaxed with the slow current of the river, followed the flights of egrets, cormorants and eagles, and listened to a calliope concert.

But not all was Cajun on the ship. For variety, there was the Dixieland Five band, song stylist Annie Lebeaux and ragtime demon Jazzou Jones, who is also cruise director.

Although each meal featured a Cajun dish, American favorites were standard.

At New Iberia, an optional all-day tour for $55 started with a drive through the countryside to St. Martinsville, home of the Evangeline Oak, a memorial to the Acadian settlers. Next was a walk in the nature sanctuary of Lake Martin, where the cypress trees drip with Spanish moss. The day was topped off with a fais do-do, a communal dance, and a lunch of seafood gumbo, fried chicken, shrimp nuggets and jambalaya. The Cajun band from the ship began to play, augmented by local musicians and singers. Local dancers arrived to demonstrate the two-step, and soon everyone joined in, swirling around the dance floor.

The rest of the week was filled with a swamp tour of Lake Henderson ($46); a cruise on the Atchafalaya River to St. Francisville (on the Mississippi River) for a shore visit ($46) to a penitentiary and Greenwood Plantation or a tour of Myrtles and Rosedown plantations ($46); and a final port of call at Baton Rouge before returning to New Orleans.

The Delta Queen, part of the bankruptcy action of American Classic Cruises, was bought earlier this year by Delaware North Co., which also purchased two other steamboats, the Mississippi Queen and American Queen.

Delaware North will continue three- to 11-night itineraries along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and will feature theme cruises -- big band and jazz, among others -- as American Classic Cruises did. A Lewis and Clark itinerary will be introduced to coincide with the anniversary of the expedition. The American Queen will be returned to service in January.

Brochure rates for seven-night cruises are $1,225 to $3,864 per person, double occupancy. For information, contact (800) 543-1949, www.deltaqueen.com.

The 174-passenger paddle-wheel steamboat Delta Queen was built in 1926 as a sister to paddle-wheeler Delta King and ran overnight service between San Francisco and Sacramento. Just before World War II, the Navy leased the boat to transport troops in San Francisco Bay. During the war the vessel was used as a hospital.

In 1946 it was purchased by Tom Green, whose family had run a steamboat company since 1890. His mother, Mary B. Green, was one of the first female captains and pilots on the Mississippi. Green had the Delta Queen moved from San Francisco through the Panama Canal to New Orleans, where it sailed to Cincinnati.

*

Harry Basch travels as a guest of the cruise lines. Cruise Views appears twice a month.